..dealing with illusions

Tag: illusion

I went out today. I traveled by a local train in the Mumbai city in the peak hours surrounded by a rush of ladies enthusiastically hoping in and out of the crowded train. Once I found myself a not so comfortable place to stand, holding one of the bench rods, my curious mind started observing the women around me. I hardly travel, because I work from home; so when I do get a chance to board a train, I’m always a little curious. Now, I’m not going to tell you about my observations; it’d be pretty boring…and people I assume are the same everywhere, except for the intensity of their emotions…

What I discovered was pretty amazing, so amazing that I decided to blog about it. If you have noticed, I usually write about spirituality and philosophy…So here I go again…what I discovered was so highly philosophical or spiritual, that it took my breath away; and in that crowded train where I was almost suffocated, perspiring profusely, as I traveled to my destination in the scorching month of May, I suddenly began to enjoy myself.

Let me tell you what I discovered!

Spirituality says that this world is an illusion, and our five senses are responsible for this delusion. In other words, it means that whatever we see is constructed by our mind, including our identity, and it does not exist at all. As humans, we know it’s very difficult to understand this because we are so caught by the fantastic sights that are presented to our sense organs. We can only call it real.

But then, let’s for a minute actually think that what we are experiencing is a delusion and a construct of our veiled mind. What would that make us? It would make us the supreme creator of this reality! How often do we think poorly of our creative skills? Because we have an ideal in our mind, to which we constantly compare it with. And we then pass a very poor judgment on our creative abilities to the point of saying we are not at all creative! How sad is that!

We are creative beings, and we create our delusions right since we are born. The way things and people make an impression on our mind, is so unique that it cannot be compared to someone else’s perception!

Right in front of me there were faces of all kinds of women, beautiful, strange, worried, sad, happy, greedy, wicked and so many more…wearing so many different shades of clothes, each different from the other!

Have you ever noticed two random people wearing a same dress…How creative our minds could be!

What do you do when everything fails to make you happy? Why does it become imperative to find joy in everything? Why do we seek fulfillment in all that we do?
Why do we come to this stage of utter dissatisfaction with everything?

They say you are aimless, you don’t have a vision…but your biological make up allows you a limited vision.
You have been taught to dream the dreams that you dream, and so by default you have a stupid vision…which is actually an illusion, let’s make it poetic, and call it a hallucination… not your fault, really…

What do you do next? Unfortunately, you are a rational creature.

You decide to curse your life silently under your breath, and feeling intensely the mortality of your life, continue dreaming the same static dreams.
How long? How far will you go?

They also organize games and say you will be rewarded…and keep the reward unattainable… No one really knows what it is…but all of you have been trying very hard…and…

This world needs you. This world, made up of little people with lofty ambitions, needs you as you are. You have come to this planet with a simple mission; and that is to be and live as you are.

What hinders us from perceiving this reality is our illusions about life and living. Let me tell you how I arrived at this beautiful conclusion. I was sitting all alone in my room, watching the beautiful sunset far away in the distance, absorbing the last golden rays, the vestiges of a beautiful day, feeling nostalgic and sad for unknown reasons. I would have been preoccupied further in the same way, when my smartphone suddenly beeped signaling the arrival of a chat message. When I took a look at my phone unwillingly, I saw a teary emoji and a message asking me for help. The warrior spirit took over me and forgetting myself for a moment, I began soothing my friend who was in distress. It was a silly reason over which she was unhappy, but her inability to have a clear perspective increased her confusion and dismay and left her with no sight of hope. All that she was seeking was a shoulder to cry upon, a willing ear to listen and a nurturing heart to care.

When I think about this incident, I have to admit that, the fact that my friend chose me in her hour of need defines my purpose in this life more clearly than anything else.

We all need people and things to make us feel sufficient and satisfied with our existence. In the same way, there are people and things that need us. You play an important as well as a trivial part in the life of all the people that you come across. As a child you delight your parents and guardians. As an adult you delight your friends and relatives. As a parent you support your children. As an employee you participate in a small but significant way in building the economy of your country. And believe me, if you are troublesome and wicked, you may be notorious and treated as an example of what not to be!

So, how can you feel worthless even for a moment? You must be thinking what my purpose was in writing this post. This post is for people who feel they are unwanted, unloved and who feel unsatisfied with their existence. I have met a lot of people who want to change their present state of life. They keep thinking that unless they achieve something, love someone, have something, be someone, they are not going to be satisfied. They look up to a ‘successful’ person and nurture an ambition to be like them. They compare themselves with others and feel miserable. They play with their own complexes and lose the game. And then they feel their existence is meaningless. A supreme illusion!

But then they forget, there are people who need them. They forget their purpose. I read about a recent divorce case of a celebrity which was making headlines for a few weeks on every TV channel and all the newspapers. Clearly, his commitment to his fans overrode all of his personal obligations. According to me, a celebrity has a noble purpose which is to put a smile on a million faces. The world needs them as much as it needs you. And that is because each is unique in his role and his purpose in serving the people around. And likewise every single thing that exists in this world has its purpose…Just like that one sunset which served its purpose by allowing me to wallow in melancholy…

The world is an illusion, not only from a spiritual/metaphysical view, but also from the material/physical perspective. Let me dwell upon this hypothesis further and attempt to convince you.

Recently I purchased new books which have been lying untouched on my bookshelf, ever since they have been delivered to my house, gathering a thin layer of dust, while other more pressing tasks tell me it is not yet time to inhale their fine print and wisdom.

And so it happened that my gaze fell on those books when I was in the middle of my work and it filled me with anguish. Anguish, for the fact that my intentions of bettering myself by engaging in an intellectual activity have to wait. Anguish also for the reason that reading gives me peace like no other activity in my life. Isn’t it complete bliss when you are lost in the fictional world, the world of possibilities and new meanings?

And so I pined, while also contemplating the priorities in my life. The desire of wanting to do something else instead of what I was doing put me in a state of mental paralysis.

And then like a divine revelation it struck me that what I was doing was actually the most important thing intellectually or otherwise. Well, I haven’t told you what I was doing at that moment. I was cooking, to say it quickly. I do enjoy cooking and I’m good at it too, but on that day and moment I was feeling lost. And so, the truth flashed before me in a fraction of a second. What if my soul, my inner being, the deepest and purest part of me wanted to engage in the art of cooking right at that moment and hour? How could I pine for something else when what my true self actually wanted to do, was already doing it? How was I to know what I truly wanted?

We are born just to live, there is no greater purpose to our life than to be just alive and experience every moment and emotion as it interacts with our mind and matter. The sum total of all that happens to us is life. Our life is what is happening to us every moment. And we want to experience what is happening to us. Every life is unique and accumulating different experiences. If I do not cook, I will not know what cooking feels like. I will not experience cooking.

The problem occurs when you judge. You judge that cooking is least important in the hierarchy of intellectual pursuits that are available to you. You judge based on your experiences with others. You judge based on your social and mental conditioning. You judge.

However, if you judge, you close yourself to the process of life. And that is why spirituality tells us ‘whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord’

It is not for us to judge whether what we do is right, wrong, beneficial or unsuccessful. These are man-made terms devised for building an economy based on false, immoral values.

What happens to you every moment is what you want. As I write this, I’m reminded of the film ‘City of Angels’ in which Seth, an angel chooses to be a human so that he can experience feelings and sensations. That is how it is with us..

As far as pain is concerned, it is the other extreme on the scale of happiness, and we all know happiness would make no sense without a little bit of pain sprinkled here and there, now and then..

Saniya Varkhandkar is the author of psychological fiction, The Recluse: A tale of an adult with ADHD.

She has studied Literature at the University of Mumbai, and worked as an Instructional Designer and a freelance writer in various e-learning organizations. At present she is a home-schooling mother who enjoys designing educational and fun activities for her son.

Vedic philosophy, occult science, and stoicism are some of the subjects that interest and inspire her.

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